RELATED APPLICATIONS
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
1. Field of Invention
Our invention generally relates to devices for attracting and electrocuting flying insects and more particularly to use of and a container for olfactory attractants in such devices.
2. Background and Description of Prior Art
The riddance of human environments of flying insects is an ancient problem existent undoubtedly as long as both the insects and humans have occupied the same environ. Many and various solutions have been proposed and heretofore become known for such purposes, but none seem to have completely and satisfactorily resolved the problem.
With the advent of environmental concerns in the modern culture, processes for destruction or riddance of insect pests have changed and been modified to present more environmentally compatible solutions which generally have substantially done away with the common use of chemical insecticides. Responsively in the present day, most devices for insect destruction or control fall into a first class of entrapment-type structures that attract insects into a containment space in which the insects are killed or otherwise contained for subsequent disposition and a second class of destruction type devices that attract insects and directly kill them without any necessary containment. Principal amongst this latter type of device is an electronic structure providing spaced, electrically charged grids that upon breaking the dielectric space between them discharge an electric current sufficient to electrocute the insect upon its encroachment. Such devices have become popular as they generally do not pollute the surrounding environment with any deleterious substances and they tend to maintain insects bodies in a reasonably small area in or in the vicinity of the device. Our invention adds a new, novel and improved member to this class of insect destroying device.
Prior art electrocution-type insect control devices have generally taken the form of a peripheral protective structure defining multiple orifices, generally in vertical side walls, enclosing two spacedly related electrical grids surrounding a medial light source. Insects are attracted to the device by the light source and may generally freely pass by flying or crawling through the surrounding protective structure and charged grid structures. Since these devices use only a light source as an optical attractant, they are effeciently destructive of insects only when they are optically active to an insect's senses, and the effectiveness of this optical attraction varies generally with surrounding ambient light conditions. The highest efficiency obviously occurs when the ambient environment is dark and efficiency becomes less as light intensity surrounding the structure increases, until in full sunlight during daytime hours light attractants are practically useless, especially at a distance. It further appears that not all insects are attracted with equal intensity by particular optical attractants and some, in fact, may not even be attracted at all by lights.
These problems with optical attractants in insect electrocution devices have been recognized, but other types of attractants generally have come into use in such devices in conjunction with a light-type optical attractant. Olfactory attractants of one sort or another, commonly including odoriferous food stuffs or substances simulating the odors of such food stuffs and pheromones of various sorts, both either generically selected to be attractive to large classes of insects or specific to particular genera or species have become known in various entrapment devices, but generally not in electrocution devices. Our invention provides an odoriferous attractant and structure for its use for such electrocution type devices in addition to their optical attractant.
In general, odoriferous attractants are expendable in a reasonably short period of time in contradistinction from light-type optical attractants that remain operative for relatively long periods of time. Because of this expendability, the olfactory attractants must commonly be periodically replaced and this requires structure to be provided to allow replacement. Such structure requires modification of an insect traditional structure of a bug electrocuting device and the addition of ancillary elements. The problem is exacerbated by the reasonably electrical high voltage such devices require and also by the requirement that an olfactory attractant generally be medially positioned in the structure so that it might be most efficiently distributed to most effectively attract insects from all directions to the appropriate killing area.
Our invention is distinguished from the prior art in providing such ancillary structure for olfactory attractant that fulfills these requirements. We provide a cup-like container, in the medial portion of the bottom of a traditional insect electrocuting device, that is mechanically biased to an inward operative position but manually movable against its bias to a position spacedly below the bottom of the structure to allow filling, replacement and maintenance procedures. The attractant container has associated switching means that upon moving the container downwardly from the bottom deactivate the electrical circuitry servicing the device to prevent any accidental contact by an operator with any active electrical components that might cause harm. The nature and structure of the attractant container allows use of all common olfactory attractants heretofore used, be they food stuffs, pheromones, odoriferous chemical materials or other materials.
Our invention is further distinguished from the prior art in providing a bottom structure that not only permits the support of an attractant cup, but also provides ancillary features to both aid attractant dispersement and insect entry into the electrocution chamber thereabove. Our structure provides a solid medial portion surrounded by an annular section spacedly adjacent its periphery defining a plurality of orifices. These orifices allow the upward flow of a selectively predetermined amount of air from the ambient atmosphere to aid dispersement of olfactory attractants carried in the attractant cup. This upward flow is aided by thermal convection induced by heat generated by the light source in the device, and attractant dispersement is enhanced by a solid top structure which prevents the attractant from moving vertically upwardly through the top of the device. The bottom orifices also provide a secondary benefit in that some insects, such as those of the wasp or yellow jacket family, prefer to approach food or enter orifices from a lower position and in an ascending course of travel. These insects will more readily enter a trap having bottom orifices than one having only vertical side orifices or top orifices to enhance the viability of our trap for this insect group.
Our invention also allows the use of all of the various structures and amenities heretofore commonly associated with electrocution type insect traps without interfering with their functions or purposes while yet providing its additional benefits.
Our invention resides not in any one of these features per se, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of our invention that give rise to the functions necessarily flowing therefrom as hereinafter further specified and claimed.